Beat the heat . .. by imagining change: well, eastriver suggested the sixth boro annex the Conch Republic. Hmmm. Since the sixth boro is an archipelago like the Keys, maybe we could confederate the American archipelagos (besides the two already mentioned, we’d join with the Thimble Islands, the Thousand Islands, the Channel Islands, the Salish Islands, and maybe establish diplomatic relations with all archipelagos smaller than . . . Long Island, giving us many of the Antilles, a smattering of Pacific nations, the Aeolian Islands and Greek Islands. I know I’ve left many out, but it’s already sounding like good company in my heat-addled brain.

Or defocus on the scorching temperatures by looking at fotos below?

First one is a “tugster-sighting” just north of the sixth boro snapped by Joel Milton. Tugster is on the foredeck of Patty Nolan (1931) sans figurefigure as she tows sailing vessel sans-servingsails Lickity-Split some weeks back, here passing the Englewood Cliffs boat basin, I believe.

Next foto from John Watson . . . Eddie R (1971) towing a mystery barge. Any guesses its mission?

Answer comes from Les Sonnenmark, longtime friend of the tugster blog: it’s a cable-laying barge operated by Calwell Marine. Info on the barge can be found in this pdf . . . starting on the unnumbered page 6ff. In fact, this barge may be related to the work of Dolphin III in the sixth boro last summer: click the link to “marine contractor” above the last foto in this post you find here.

and Matthew Tibbetts (1969) both high and dry at Caddell Shipyard in Staten Island.

Foto from Lou Rosenberg of Aegean Sea (1962) near Rockaway Inlet. Aegean Sea used to

be called, in order, Francis E. Roehrig, Jersey Coast, and John C. Barker.

This yard tug in Mayport seems to have a protection bar, but in spite of the

the numbers on the stern, I’ve found no info on this type. Fotos by tugster. Orange bow on the right side of foto belongs to C-Tractor 13.

A final shot of Patty Nolan and Lickety Split headed upriver.

Thanks to Joel, John, Les, Jed, Justin, and Lou.

Only tangentially related: For info on YTB-832, previously based in Mayport and now possibly in Greece by way of Italy, click here.

And an even less tenuous tangential connection to these fotos of vessels of La Guardia di Finanza, which sounds like what our government is supposed to do but actually refers to something quite different . . . . What it is can be found here.

More fotos will be forthcoming from the Conch Republic, a possible future residence.

Thanks to Stuart, Harold, and “Ann O’Numess” for identifying the Kosnac tug steaming past Riker’s in Carlito’s Way. Here’s a foto I took three years ago, and below I took of Dorothy Elizabeth (1951) in Tottenville a month ago. Might she really already be slivers of scrap?

Hercules (1963), sibling of Maverick and others, awaits her emigration with

With unusually high exhaust, that’s Marlin (1974) on left and Penn No. 6 (1970) beside her. No one has yet told me how designers decide to run such long exhausts v. equally serviceable short ones. Sea Ravenis another high-exhaust vessel.

Click here to see Kathleen Turecamo in its element, not where it stood last weekend.

Barents Sea (right) and Na Hoku . . . I wonder how long they’ve spent tied up here. I recall feeling excited when I first spotted Barents (1976) more than three years back, and Na Hoku (1981) used to work the California-Hawaii run, but I can tell you when she last floated on Pacific water.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who DOES reduce foto resolution before posting them here.

How many of these tugboats cruising through along the Brooklyn waterfront here can you identify? One might be as rare as a Mississippi kite soaring over New York. Answers and more info follows.

And what’s this? Also a rare film Manhatta (click here to watch the entire 10-minute 1921 silent film) by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand greets gallery-goers at the Whitney entering “modern Life: Edward Hopper and his Time.” Only a few weeks remain to see this, as it closes on April 10. In this capture from the video, a half dozen steam tugs wrestle RMS Aquitania into a finger pier. The film becomes tugboat-intensive at the 6:25 point.

Also, Working Harbor Committee presents a rare and exciting documentary followed by a panel discussion THIS Wednesday in New York; tickets are available here. I have to work elsewhere that night, but panelists will include my friends Ann Loeding (below) and Jessica Dulong (scroll through), but also

but also many others like Cmdr Linda A. Sturgis.

If you haven’t checked bowsprite’s latest work, check it out here. What caught my attention other than the actual fantastic drawing was her use of the term “wooden freighter.” Well, Marion M was built in 1932, and that–from this collage of fotos–was a very different era, a time when freighters could still be wooden vessels.

Back to the first foto of this post: from left to right and excluding the white vessel in the foreground, it’s Sea Raven, East Coast, and Penn No. 4 . . . all of which you’ve seen on tugster before . . . and can relocate by typing each name into the search window. But that black-hulled, white and blue trim vessel in the foreground . . . is Hercules. I believe she’s a 2011 launch from Washburn & Doughty.

Is it possibly this is her first voyage and that she’s not yet seen the GOM waters where she live? If so, these are some rare snaps? Here she heads for the Narrows, Miss Gill behind her and Amy Moran in foreground. And why do I not recall having seen Amy Moran before?

Fotos of Ann Loeding and Linda A. Sturgis are used by permission from Jonathan Atkin. All other fotos by Will Van Dorp.

McAllister Responder and Maurania III escort Nordatlantic into Global. “Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat.” Nice observation from an unknown author

Buchanan 1 departs barges hanging on a mooring near a virtually invisible Bayonne. “The color of winter is in the imagination.” Terri Guillemets

HNSE 211 scrap barge, pushed by an bright blue but invisible Crow, heads for export in the hold of a salty bulker. Over on the Brooklyn side, see the yellow crane of Cove Island. “In a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.” Plutarch

OK . . . some humor on the way out: “I was just thinking, if it is really religion with these nudist colonies, they sure must turn atheists in the wintertime.” Will Rogers What Will Rogers conjures up is the realization that the mermaid parade 2011 is only about four months away. Seems soon. Mardi Gras is over 30 days away. Seems far.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who enjoys winter as much as summer and all the dozens of other seasons we experience in the sixth boro.

Unrelated: To see what happens in Essex, MA, when sleet or snow is flying, click here. Hey, schooners await their appointment with launch.

Finally, the identification of the ferry in yesterday’s post, according to Kyran Clune, is Guy V. Molinari, which along with Senator John J. Marchi and Spirit of America, began their journey in Marinette, Wisconsin. Molinari, pre-launch, awaits below.

For fotos of snow elsewhere, check out Essex, MA at Burnham’s. Or Gloucester snow and so much more with Jay Albert; I especially liked his report recently on Ocean Alliance moving into the long-empty paint factory. Issuma feels the cold in Toronto. George Conk watches the ice from just north of the GW Bridge. And finally, from Australia, it looks like snow, but it’s spuma!!

I dedicate this post to Mage, who notices when I neglect the cruise ships that make up part of harbor traffic. All the following fotos were taken Friday and Saturday, September 3 from Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79 between Red Hook to Cold Spring, about 50 miles upriver from the Battery (aka southernmost tip of Manhattan).

Caribbean Princess docks here at Pier 88, a stroll away from the Empire State Building.

Over along the Palisades, north of the GW Bridge, Blue Guitaranchors before heading farther upriver. Whatever else her itinerary, I recall seeing Blue Guitar here last summer as well.

Champion passed us south of the Tappan Zee. Anyone know anything about Champion?

Off Hook Mountain we crossed Glen Cove, who moves all manner of products for people . . . so –by stretch — Glen Cove fits into this post as well.

Commander is a tour boat working out of Haverstraw; here she follows us northward from the Bear Mountain Bridge. To me , this is the most beautiful stretch of the Hudson. The link at the start of this paragraph reveals Commander‘s rich and storied past dating back to World War 1.

A day after we passed her at Chelsea Piers, Grande Caribe leapfrogs past us between West Point and Cold Spring.

Penn No. 4 herds people in solo vessels (SVs?) like a border collie moving sheep or goats or cows.

To see an excellent Flickr foto of Gazela by Gregg M, click here. And for an account plus video of Gazela‘s trip to New Bedford earlier this summer, click here. For my earlier pics of Gazela in Atlantic Basin Red Hook, click here.

As Gazela sailed back to Philly between daybreak last Wednesday and late afternoon Thursday, I was fortunate to be a very “green” member of the crew, my first time sailing on a barquentine. Other vessels passed and overtook us, and I’m including those fotos here in hopes that anyone aboard these other vessels who photographed us might be willing to share those shots of Gazela. Please do.

Gazela departs through the Narrows under a drizzle; precipitation had been off and on for three days, delaying departure by 48 hours. (For pics, doubleclick enlarges.)

From midships, looking aft . . . notice the crew wearing foulies.

Tanker British Serenity overtakes us outside the Narrows. By sunset, 10 hours later, we’d motorsailed off Atlantic City, surfing swells and getting soaked with on & off drizzle.

Skies clear overnight, giving us a just-past-full moon. I stand a midnight–6 am watch from Cape May and up Delaware Bay. This is sunrise.

After breakfast, I nap for an hour until a lurch awakens me. “Must be someone’s wake,” I imagine, grab my camera, and go on deck. I believe it was Amberjack, also headed up the Bay.

Astern, two vessels are catching up to us: broad on the port beam were EPA-Boldand Vane BrothersBrandywine.

For info on what Bold is doing in Delaware Bay and its schedule for the rest of 2010, click here.

If you have Thursday morning fotos of Gazela, please get in touch. I have additional Bold shots.

A trip that begins in rain might end like this: honey colored sunshine after a trip well done, this member of the crew a little less green.

If you were on any of the vessels above and have pics of Gazela, please get in touch.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

Many thanks to the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild and wonderful crew for the opportunity to sail. If you are interested in volunteering, click here. Gazela expects to be back up through the sixth boro once more this fall.